Golkar stands firm on state leadership issue: Akbar

Golkar stands firm on state leadership issue: Akbar

JAKARTA (JP): No amount of external pressure will make Golkar
budge from its decision to nominate Soeharto and B.J. Habibie as
the next president and vice president, an official of the
dominant faction vowed yesterday.

Akbar Tanjung said Golkar's stance on state leadership was
final.

"No outside pressure will make Golkar change its mind," Akbar
said, adding as a rebuke for journalists: "You should not be
influenced by (certain) information, especially from abroad."

Akbar, secretary to the coordinator for Golkar's board of
patrons, was referring to a call by the Petisi 50 group of noted
government critics Friday that the People's Consultative Assembly
reject President Soeharto's accountability speech and not reelect
the 76-year-old President.

The Assembly's five factions have all formally renominated
Soeharto to his seventh consecutive term.

Akbar was also responding to speculation that the Assembly is
now under strong pressure from the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) to withdraw B.J. Habibie from its vice presidential
nomination.

"Only we (Indonesians) know who the appropriate people are for
the presidency and vice presidency," Akbar said after joining a
team of five Golkar leaders who asked Soeharto, at his private
residence on Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta, if he was willing to
be nominated.

"Other people or foreigners may share their opinions on our
state leadership. But they have to respect our sovereignty," he
said, citing how Indonesia has never influenced the U.S.
presidential election.

Officials from the other four Assembly factions also rejected
the calls.

"The Petisi 50 should redefine its demand, as I cannot
understand what it is they want," Deputy Assembly Speaker of the
Armed Forces (ABRI) faction Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid said as quoted
by the Terbit afternoon daily Saturday.

"The group should first read the President's accountability
speech, including the appendixes," Golkar's Ary Mardjono said in
reference to the more than 2,200-page document.

"They would have understood, had they read all of the
document," according to Clara Sitompul of the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI).

Role

Constitutional law expert Yusril Ihza Mahendra said yesterday
that it was likely the next vice president would be given greater
authority than that granted to his predecessors.

"Given President Soeharto's age, the next vice president will
bear greater responsibilities compared to the previous vice
presidents," he said yesterday.

"I think the next vice president will perform a lot of duties
in connection with international affairs, representing the
President."

He cited that it would be difficult for the President to go on
many international visits because of his age. Soeharto turns 77
this May.

Yusril, however, said the vice president would still not be in
a decision-making position.

"The decision-making authority would still belong to the
President as it is he who receives the mandate from the Assembly
to lead the country, not the vice president."

He said vice presidency would be considered a strategic
position only if the president dies or steps down. (imn)